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I have a 20g tank waiting to put my breeding Angelfish in, with all the equipement. I'll be attempting it in about 2 more weeks.

For over a year, I've had a pair of Angels that lay eggs dependably about every 2 weeks. But they are in a community tank with lots of hungry fish....so the babies always get eaten.

When I have all the water and filter cycling done enough to move the pair into a 20g tank by themselves, with a breeding slate, I will see if any survive hatching and live.

I attempted to hatch baby brine shrimp in a previous attemp, but found it more of and involded complicated process than I want to take one again. SO this time...I want to use Hikari First Bites fry food. Is that good?

How would I feed the tiny fish with the tiny food in a "comparatively large"(compared to the babies)20 gallon tank? Wouldn't the food just disperse everywhere making it hard for the fry to find?

I could use some advance guidance on this process, please?
(I have no money for other tanks to separate the babies to raise....I guess I'll put the parents back in the community tank they came out of, while the babies grow. This...if successful will be my only Angelfish breeding. I next will attempt breeding Bolivian Rams in the tank)

Again....will Hikari first bites work as the fry's first food?

The foods do disperse, but all you do is not run a spotless tank with excessive gravel cleaning, but make sure the nitrate is kept low, and youll have to feed several times daily, I wouldnt rely only on the hikari first bites, use liquifry formulas and decapsulated brineshrimp too, and a greater percentage will survive.Do a bit of a clean up if you see any fungal activity though.

Get the nitrate levels spick and span when the eggs are laid, and then try to hold off on the water changes for at least the first week to a fortnight, fry arent fond of changes , its often more shock than their little bodies can take, and when you do changes the temps must be degree accurate. Keep the fry tank heavily planted and there will pretty much always something to eat, infusoria and aufwuchs will settle on leaves and the fry will forage. Hikari first bites are fine but baby cichlids are tiny, there really needs to be some in tank fauna for the vast majority to do really well, if your one of those people afraid to let the food break down a little who overcleans the fry are easily starved. The first bites will suit them about a week to two weeks in , but prior to that they do besyt on ber tiny foods, and sometimes that grotty old bit of bogwood covered in moss and algae can be a fry lifesaver, festooned as it is with numerous edible micro-organisms.

Overfiltering without too much flow tends to help too. Big media beds are the answer.

i concur with lhg - as i often do!

the best thing to do for the bubs is to stack that tank with as much moss and other places for life to grow as possible - i've seen set-ups with moss on branches so it's higher in the water column. let the tank really settle so there is as much micro-life as possible. this will really improve your chances of keeping some bubs alive.

regards,

justin

id be worried at the height of that tank for angelfish, no?
Vertical slate works well - as do amazon swords

Mez does have a point, depends on the size of the adults to a degree, but most larger ones wont be especially comfortable spawning in a tank that size, would pay to go bigger, helps with the nitrate levels when the fry are young to have a decent volume for nitrate control without having to get to changes too early, and it always helps to keep water changes proportionately small for minimum ph, temp, and o2 level changes, if the tank is bigger youll also be able to have them in there for longer before splitting them up.
Plus the larger the tank the more microfauna youll be able to produce without the water quality bombing out. Larger fry aquaria generally are more successful.

Angelfish are real swines for dwarfing too, and if you have dozens survive, then it helps if their development isnt impeded by small volumes before they have a chance to be rehomed or sold. Overcleaned and undersized fry raising aquaria are half the reason lots of angelfish, severum and discus stock are often so poor in shops. They never really come back from early developmental damage, youll always get smaller sizes, and increased rates of dropsy under seriously slow or dwarfed development.

Taken seriously, fry raising is a bit of a responsibility, some consideration should always go to the potential of the adults to come.